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The Revenge of the Tree - 3/16/2002

by Elmo

 

 Our trail building Saturday started off much like the other Saturdays, up at 5 a.m. to make the run to Pittsfield in time for the hardy VFW breakfast, inspect a few Jeeps then a quick run to the store to grab a deli sandwich for lunch, choose a trail and off we go. This particular Saturday my youngest daughter, Jennifer came along to help clear trails and of course ride in the jeep.

We chose Montezuma's Revenge with Stu and Craig as our trail guides in Stu's Cherokee. Also on this trail were John Winckler and his buddy and Steve (the new guy) and his wife Elizabeth. John was in his YJ with it's cool new blue paint job. He was looking pretty sharp, the key word here being "was". But, we will save that for later in the story.
Steve drove his pristine, showroom quality, CJ5. The early part of the morning was spent moving brush and fallen limbs, off the trail. At one point we moved all the brush and sediment off a cattle gate that had been washed over by the rush of the water through the now dry creek we were traversing. I decided to get a little air as we came out of the creek bed and Jennifer captured my play on her Christmas present for all to see.
Shortly after we found our trail guide leading us into a creek with the water still running through it. I thought this would be a good time to let Jennifer get a feel for the wheel. I swapped places and encouraged Steve to allow Elizabeth to drive also, but one or the other declined to do so and it was off to the water with Jennifer at the helm (so to speak). After playing in the creek we climbed out and up a small grade which Jennifer handled very well with only a little bit of coaching. Then came the long uphill grade and she began to sweat, no longer complaining of being cold, we reached the summit where it was necessary to make a right turn followed by backing just to the edge while backing left then a hard right (commonly known as a three point turn) to get past a tree and down the hill. Jennifer was more than a little afraid to back towards the incline she had just drove up and in the surge of adrenaline she was still feeling, gassed on the Jeep dropped the clutch and rammed the tree hitting it dead center of the front bumper. While Jennifer sat there about to cry over the carnage she thought she had amassed, I first feared for our safety from possible dead tree limbs falling, then of our possible long ride back to get the trailer for the disabled Jeep. Thankfully, neither event took place. Only a few sprinklings of twigs fell from the tree and there was no sign of steam from the front of the Jeep, so I began to laugh. And laugh I did until my sides began to hurt from the laughing. Now please, keep in mind all these thoughts were almost instantaneous so I began to laugh even before our fearless leaders could get to us to see if all was OK. They thought, for only a minute or so that we might be hurt, but quickly discovered both of us to be just fine except for the laughing thing, then they all began to laugh, too. Since we were all out of our Jeeps we decided this would be a good time for lunch and we all settled at the bottom of the hill from the tree who at that very moment was sending out messages to the rest of the trees to get us.
We finished our lunch and began the afternoon by going down the creek away and then to the left up and out to build a new trail. This took a little more blazing than first was considered. We watched as Craig the master logger got his chain saw pinched so badly that he began to remove the bar from the saw to keep it from getting damaged. As I made my way to the same tree to try to cut loose Craig's saw it became evident this tree had received the message from Jennifer's tree. My saw also became stuck so far into the tree as it could not be removed either. Now the new guy Steve wanted a little piece of this action also but he had no saw, he did however have this really cool hatchet. Steve worked his magic against the will of the trees and shortly thereafter we found ourselves climbing the new trail.
The trees were not yet finished with us. As I began the ascent to the top of our new trail I could not get to the top without the help of a tree and my winch. Stu wrapped the tree with the tree saver hooked me up and gave me the go ahead after getting out of harms way behind some trees and far away from the cable. Tree number three began its revenge as my winch tightened. The tree began to come to my Jeep, literally. It seems the tree had rotted and as I began to pull it began to fall towards my Jeep with me in it. Once again, thank you God, fear turned to laughter as the tree wedged itself into another tree before moving more than 5 to 10 degrees from its straight up position.
We changed trees and much to the chagrin of the trees we moved on out of the woods and onto our next project on the north side of I-72 just off the banks of the Illinois river. The tree communication network must have been working exceptionally well that day as we were 3 to 4 miles from where Jennifer started the altercation and yet the trees were ready for their next attack. Our group headed down steep grass covered meadow into a ravine to make some new trails and the trees were ready. I cut a fallen tree out of the path we chose to make (and a sapling standing near it with no problem) and began to feel confident we had over come the tree attack. Stu ran the new trailand on up the hill after only brushing against a couple of saplings next to the edge of the ravine. John was next after backing his way from further south of where we were cutting. I am not sure why he was backing his way up the ravine but it is his truck and he can do what he wants. In the process of turning around in the ravine a large rock came up and took a bite out of John's newly painted left rear corner right below a sign stuck on his Jeep that read STOOPID. I thought it to be ironic the placement of the sign. I guess the rock did not find it amusing. Within a few minutes of the rock exacting revenge, the saplings got into the fracas by ripping off both John's right mirror and right front fender flare. We scolded John's Jeep for leaving all the trail trash and then proceeded to pick up after it.
We played and built for a few more hours and called it a great day despite the trees trying to dampen our spirits. Thank you to our trail guides and the rest of the gang for the help and fun, and as always a big THANK YOU to THE LAND OWNERS for letting us play on your property.


 

 
Created: 03/19/02
Page Owner: Elmo